Maria Luisa Gambale

Maria Luisa Gambale, a graduate of Harvard University, lives in New York City. In addition to writing, she produces film and media projects and is director of the 2011 film "Sarabah," about the Senegalese rapper-activist Sister Fa. She has produced and directed video for National Geographic, ABC News, The New York Times and Fusion Network. Gambale's work in all media can be viewed at www.veradonnafilms.com.

TOPIC: WOMEN

Wazhma Frogh Wants Women in the Afghan Peace Talks Now

May 13, 2019

by Maria Luisa Gambale

Wazhma Frogh is a lifetime campaigner for Afghan women and girls. She co-founded the Women and Peace Studies Organization in Afghanistan in 2011 and is a member of the Afghan Women’s Network. In 2009, the United States State Department granted her the International Women of Courage Award. Frogh recently spoke with PassBlue through a …

Asia, Gender-Based Violence, US Foreign Relations, Women

One Comment

TOPIC: WOMEN

Violence Is a Choice: The Peace Philosophy of Filmmaker Abigail Disney

March 25, 2019

by Maria Luisa Gambale

Abigail Disney is an American filmmaker and philanthropist who founded Fork Films and Peace Is Loud, an advocacy group. She also founded — with her husband, Pierre Hauser — the Daphne Foundation. Since her 2009 film “Pray the Devil Back to Hell,” which documented women’s peace activism that brought to power Liberia’s first female …

Gender-Based Violence, Peace and Security, Women

One Comment

GEOPOLITICS

Striking a Better Balance in the Newest UN Peacekeeping Reforms

October 4, 2018

by Maria Luisa Gambale

Just days before the United Nations held a meeting with heads of state and foreign ministers on Secretary-General António Guterres’s Action for Peacekeeping initiative, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 2436 on peace operations, on Sept. 21. Drafted by the United States, the resolution is the result of collaboration between Council members and …

Geopolitics, UN Peacekeeping, US Foreign Relations, US-UN Relations

Leave a Comment

NIKKI HALEY WATCH

The UN’s Report on Poverty in the US Is Rebuked by Nikki Haley

June 28, 2018

by Maria Luisa Gambale

When Philip Alston decided to focus a report on the United States, in his role as the United Nations special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, the goal was to spur a larger discussion. However, in the past week there has been a slow-motion volley of criticisms instead, as Nikki Haley, the US …

Human Rights, Nikki Haley Watch, Poverty, US-UN Relations

Leave a Comment

GEOPOLITICS

At the UN, a New Treaty Banning Nuclear Weapons Is Adopted by 122 Nations

July 7, 2017

by Maria Luisa Gambale

Nuclear buildup and threat of nuclear war became a front-page item this past week, after Kim Jong Un’s declaration of a successful intercontinental ballistic missile test, confirmed on July 4 by United States Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. Such headlines — proclaimed on America’s Independence Day — remind the public of the ever-present specter …

Disarmament, Gender-Based Violence, Geopolitics, Nuclear Disarmament

Leave a Comment

How Syrian Women Landed at the UN Peace Talks and What It All Means

May 10, 2016

by Maria Luisa Gambale

GENEVA — Like approaching a mirage, in early 2016 Syrian women have made significant steps closer to the central negotiating tables of the extremely fragile intra-Syrian peace talks. It’s a process that Syrian women and the United Nations have been building since mid-2013. And in the Geneva III peace negotiations — structured so far as …

Syria, Women

Leave a Comment

In Italy, a Patchwork of Services for Migrants Arriving at Its Shores [Video]

August 5, 2015

by Maria Luisa Gambale

ROME — Italy is a slender peninsula ringed by 4,722 miles of coastline, a blessing that brings thousands of Italians to the sea each August for Ferragosto, the country’s summer vacation period. The coastline — one of the longest in the world — has also been attracting boats full of refugees and migrants, in …

Africa, Libya, Migration, Refugees

Leave a Comment

WORLDVIEWS

The Heart of Sarajevo Is Back

December 28, 2014

by Maria Luisa Gambale

During a trip to Sarajevo in April, my first visit to the city, I was in the middle of Rebecca West’s long, erudite, poetic travel memoir about the Balkans, written in the late 1930s but covering hundreds of years of history in the region. For her, and for me reading it, Sarajevo was where …

WORLDVIEWS

One Comment

Syrian Women Working for Peace and Political Action

October 21, 2014

by Maria Luisa Gambale

GAZIANTEP, Turkey — Syrian women filled the conference room and lobby of a hotel in this border city for one week in late August this year. They were the focus of a “Space for Collaboration” workshop, providing networking and training to women working on political solutions to the Syrian civil war. A majority of …

Middle East, Peace and Security, Women

3 Comments

What Good Can a Film Do?

June 30, 2014

by Maria Luisa Gambale

ISTANBUL — In 2013, Daniela Kon founded the Social Impact Media Awards to give a boost to a certain kind of documentary film. Documentaries don’t usually make a lot of money. Except for a few lucky theatrical or television releases each year that manage to do more than break even, most documentary films are …

Asia, Human Rights, Poverty, Refugees

Leave a Comment

The Divided Life of Cyprus

April 15, 2014

by Maria Luisa Gambale

The United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus marked its 50th anniversary in March. The mission, which supervises cease-fire lines and maintains a buffer zone, has involved 32 countries that have contributed troops and police, among whom 184 peacekeepers have died. About 850 troops and 60 police officers make up the mission now, operating …